In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the cost of supplying water to, and dealing with waste water from, buildings. In some territories and/or organisations there has been a drive to reduce water consumption. A significant source of water consumption for a building, such as an office block or a shopping centre, is waste water from flushable urinals.
Water consumption can be significantly reduced in such a building if flushable urinals are replaced with “waterless” or low water usage urinals. A waterless urinal is a urinal which requires no flushing and may include a specially designed trap which utilises urine to form a liquid seal to prevent back odours from the soil stack being emitted through the urinal. Other waterless urinals may feature oil filled traps or non-return valves which do not rely on a liquid based seal.
Conventional waterless urinals include a disposable cartridge which contains a consumable de-odoriser. The de-odoriser gives off an odour which masks the smell of the urine contained within the trap. The physical size of the de-odoriser reduces through contact with air and urine, and the cartridges are replaced periodically as part of a maintenance schedule. There are problems associated with such a regime however; for example, where there is more than one urinal, the time period between cartridge changes is determined by the requirements of the urinal which is used most heavily as the consumable de-odoriser in this urinal will be consumed most quickly. In such a situation, the cartridges of other urinals in the same toilet may be replaced unnecessarily if they are changed as part of the periodic maintenance. Furthermore, when the cartridge is changed there is a significant amount of material which has to be disposed of.